Camino 3 days on the trail Day 1: Wednesday 16th July 2025
Ibis hotel, Le Puy en Valay
4.45 awake. Wrote some notes and ordered Ada a Ladybird memory game on Amazon, which will arrive in Hanham tomorrow. Of course, that seems both normal and mad at the same time; the world continues to shrink.
Breakfast on my own, no one else up so early.
Last minute decision. Yes or no for packing sandals in walking rucksack Yes. Regretting in some ways that I decided not to pack a razor to go for the Crusoe look. After a few days the extra growth is not an attractive feature.
Walk up to the Cathedral for Mass and blessing. Sweat is already making my t-shirt sopping wet; it’s relatively cool, but the climb to the Cathedral is sharp uphill. No one else seems to sweat as much as John S. There’s nothing I can do about it, so I shed my rucksack along with others to the side of the Cathedral and take my seat. There must be 150 fellow Camino pilgrims. Beautiful Catholic Latin singing responses…the higher notes fading away slower than the bass notes in the large space. Many who are there, evidently Catholic, know all the responses. Mostly French, just a few international visitors.
Suitably blessed, I meet Paul and we haul our rucksacks on and head off, stopping almost immediately with a stupendous view from within the Cathedral down and down a cobbled street into Le Puy.
We’ve started; Paul’s dream to do a month on the Camino is underway.
Patterns quickly emerge that carry on over the following days. With those walking at approximately the same pace – and have booked the same Gites – we enter a leapfrogging rhythm as we take breaks and watch people pass, our French being put to the test.
The route to Montbonnet is relentlessly beautiful. Not only the wide views of the Le Puy valley appear as we walk uphill, but the ancient architecture of an increasingly rural France appeals to me. A little like walking in the Welsh hills, but the stone buildings are a variation on the same theme; large, irregular, rounded stones fitted together with mortar. Shutters, of course, adorn every window.
Reaching Le Premiere Etap, our first gite, we walked down a set of steep stone steps onto a large area of decking on which are hundreds of colourful tea pots, plants, different seating areas, a washing line, and a large garden beneath. The owner is rushing around speaking excitedly in French.
I found some games and we sit down outside for a game of Scrabble, quickly joined by another and it turns into a French and English words Scrabble. A crowd gathered, watching.
Our room is basic but fine. Philip the elder and Philip Junior (nicknamed a day later) share the room. Communal loos and shower.
Supper at 7.
I felt a little unmoored by my poor French. Paul seems to be deep in conversation & going well. I needn’t have worried, but at the time it felt awkward.